ACC ~ 1 Timothy 1 v15b

A GREAT INVALID. AUGUSTINE: There was no reason for Christ the Lord to come, except to save sinners. Eliminate diseases, eliminate wounds, and there is no call for medicine. If a great doctor has come down from heaven, a great invalid must have been lying very sick throughout the whole wide world. This invalid is the whole human race. SERMONS 175.1.

ALL WHO SIN DESERVE JUST PUNISHMENT. AUGUSTINE: “For all have sinned,” either in Adam or by themselves, “and are deprived of the glory of God.”Consequently, the whole human mass ought to be punished, and if the deserved punishment of damnation were rendered to all, beyond all doubt it would be justly rendered. This is why those who are liberated from it by grace are not called vessels of their own merits but “vessels of mercy.” But whose mercy was it but him who sent Jesus Christ into this world to save sinners, whom he foreknew, predestined, called, justified and glorified? Hence, who could be so advanced in foolish insanity as not to render ineffable thanks to the mercy of this God who liberates those whom he has wished, considering that one could not in any way reproach the justice of God in condemning all entirely? ON NATURE AND GRACE 1.4.4-1.5.5.

DIVINE FOREKNOWLEDGE DOES NOT DETERMINE HUMAN RESPONSES. LEO THE GREAT: What was foreknown about the malice of Jews and what was properly decreed regarding the passion of Christ were very different and quite contrary. For the will to murder did not proceed from the same place as the will to die. Nor did their heinous crime and the Redeemer’s patience arise from a single spirit. Our Lord did not himself cause the wicked hands of his attackers to be laid on him, but he permitted this. He did not force what was going to happen actually to happen simply by foreknowing it. Yet it was for this purpose that he had taken on flesh, so that it might happen. Finally, so disparate were the motives of the Crucified and of those crucifying, that what was undertaken by Christ could not be abolished, what was committed by those others could indeed have been put to a halt. He who came “to save sinners” did not deny his mercy even to his own murderers,but turned the evil of godless people to the good of believers. SERMONS 67.2-3.

1 Tim